by Nora Ash
“No, Liv. It’s not,” she said.
I wanted to ask her what she meant, but before I could she stopped before a closed door and knocked lightly. “My lord?”
An affirmative murmur sounded from within, and she pushed the door open. “You have a visitor, my lord,” she said, giving me a light nudge to push me over the threshold.
And there he sat in a hideous, white modern chair, staring at two vampires who were kneeling in front of him, heads bent. We were obviously interrupting something.
"Show them to the waiting area, Carina. This will take a while." Warin’s voice was icy and detached and so… so different. It made my heart ache. I made to turn around and leave, but Carina’s light grip on my arm stopped me.
"I don't think this can wait, my lord,” she insisted.
He looked up then, pale face impassive and as perfectly sculpted as I remembered it, but there was something different there. It seemed like pain was straining behind that flawless mask, threatening to break through the cracks. I wondered if my face looked the same.
When his eyes locked on my form, they widened, but the rest of him was still as a statue. Until he, in a smooth but authoritarian tone, said, "Leave."
The shock that went through me nearly made my knees buckle. Tears stung my eyes as I tried to turn around, dazed, but again Carina’s hand stopped me.
Warin had turned his head to the vampires on the floor. "I will summon you when I wish to resume this."
The two looked relieved. They got up and swooshed past me before I'd fully realized he hadn't spoken to me. A light squeeze on my arm notified me of Carina’s departure.
And then it was just him and me in the big office.
Warin stood, slowly, but stayed by the chair, keeping distance between us.
"Hey, I croaked.
"Why are you here, Liv?” The velvet touch of his voice made me shiver.
“I…” I took in a deep breath. “I’m here because I…I know I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have left, and I’m… hoping you…” I gritted my teeth, trying to force the words out. In the face of his detached agony, I hated myself like I’d never hated myself before. I’d caused this. I’d hurt him. He may have looked the regal, detached vampire to everyone else, but I recognized the wound of our separation in him, because it resonated in my own broken soul. I wanted to tell him so bad why I’d left, but Aleric was right—it wasn’t safe.
“Please take me back, Warin,” I whispered. “Please forgive my stupidity. I was scared, and I was stupid, and I… I am so, so sorry.”
He shook his head, breathing deeply. “I sense Aleric here. I know he brought you. My brother… has an unfortunate tendency of ignoring my orders. I will ask Carina to arrange for your travels back—and I will ensure Aleric obeys me this time. Whatever he has threatened, you have my word I will not allow him to fulfill it.”
I blinked, confused at that response. Sure, I hadn’t expected him to just take me back, no questions asked, but trying to send me back? Then it hit me—he thought my apology was forced by his brother.
“No, Warin. No, no, no.” I crossed the floor and, hesitating for a just a second, put my hands on his shoulders. He tensed under my touch, like he had the first few times, and I fought back the bloom of hurt. He had every right to build his walls back up.
“I am not here because Aleric made me. Yes, he brought me here, but I’m not asking for another chance because of your asshole brother force blood bonding me. I’m asking you—“
“What?” Warin interrupted me, a flare of anger taking over his face. The change was feral and terrifying as fuck. “He did what?”
“Uh… blood bonded… me?” I squeaked.
“Aleric!” It was a roar, but the dark power welling up around my beloved was what made me take a startled step backward. His nostrils flared, his eyes nearly black with fury.
“W-what’s happening?” I stuttered. “Warin—?”
The study door banged open and Aleric came stumbling in, a hand pressed tight against his ribs. “Fuck, calm down!” he groaned through gritted teeth.
“You forced a blood bond on my beloved?” Warin snarled. “Without my permission? Against her will?”
Aleric groaned again and dropped to his knees. “Had to. You were suffering, Warin, I—“
Warin’s growl shut him up. “You went against my direct orders—you brought her here against her will, and tied her with your blood! You know what the punishment is!”
Aleric drew in a shuddering breath and finally lowered his hand from his ribs. “I do. Do what you must, Elder. I do not regret my actions.”
“You will,” Warin promised, his voice low and deadly.
“Warin,” I interrupted as he made to step toward the other vampire. When he looked at me, I reached out for him again, placing a hand on his arm. “Stop it. Please.”
He didn’t respond, but at least he didn’t advance on Aleric, either.
“Your brother’s an ass, but he did what he did for you. I know that, even if I’m not happy about his methods. And he came to get me when I was too much of a coward to come on my own. Please, can we… can we just talk?”
Warin drew in a shuddering breath, and as quickly as the anger had arrived, it melted off his features until only weary regret remained. Slowly, he lifted a hand to touch my hair. “No, my love. You need to leave before it’s too late. If we talk, it will be too late.”
“W-what do you mean?” I whispered. Was he really… sending me away? I blinked my tears away, but they just kept coming.
“I mean that if you stay, Liv… if we talk... if you tell me you’re sorry, I won’t… I won’t be able to let you leave again. Ever.” He brushed his hand from my hair to my cheek, capturing the trickle of tears with the pad of his thumb. “Leave, my love. Now. If you ever wish to be free again, you have to leave.”
I shook my head and clutched his hands, pressing my cheek into his cool palm. “No, Warin. I don’t want to leave. I don’t ever want to leave.”
“Don’t say that,” he said, a sliver of the growl making its way back into his voice. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying I love you, and I want to be yours. Just yours.” I kissed his palm and looked up into his eyes, willing him to understand the depth of my devotion. And the sincerity of my regret. “There is no freedom away from you. There is just pain. I don’t know why… I don’t understand why I need you, but I do. I need you so much it hurts, Warin. Please. Don’t send me away. Please. Forgive me.”
He closed his eyes with a soft groan, tangling his hand in my hair and pulling me closer to his strong body as he buried his face against the side of my head. “Liv… you deserve so much more. I am… so tainted. So… wretched. I fear, if you stay… I will swallow your light and pull you into my darkness. When you left… I almost… I was going to force you back, I… I was going to hurt people, anyone I had to, to get you back. This darkness inside of me, the monster… it’s still there. It will never go away. All I want, Liv, all I ache for, is to tie you to my side. I love you so deeply, I love you with everything I am, everything—and what I am, my love… It’s dark and it’s ugly. And if you don’t run, I fear I will take you, and I’ll break the light within you. It’s what I did, before. When I escaped my Sire. I broke everything beautiful in my path. Please, don’t let me break you, too. I beg you, Liv. I can’t… I can’t hurt you. I can’t bear the thought of looking into your eyes and not see your light. Leave me. I beg you. Leave. Now.”
“Warin,” I whispered, pulling my head back so I could lock my gaze in his. “I’m not leaving. Not now, not ever.”
“Liv—“
“No. I know you. You are here, inside me.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “I can feel you—I can see you. You are not a monster. And you will never hurt me. I know your fears, I know why you’re so scared of doing to me what your Sire did to you, but you won’t. You can’t. It’s just me and you now, Warin. He’s not here. He can’t hurt you—he can
’t make you hurt me.” I moved my hand from my chest to his, where he’d once told me he still felt the broken bond to the vampire who Changed him. “He was a monster. And for a long time, even after his death, you carried him with you. But he has no more power over you. And you will never, ever be alone again. I am here, Warin. And I’m not leaving you. Never again.”
“My beautiful fool,” he whispered, his hand coming up to press against mine. “It’s too late. You’re out of time. You belong to me now. Forever and always.”
“I want to belong to you,” I said, leaning in to rest my head against his shoulder.
“You’ve said that before.”
“I meant it then too.”
Warin pressed a kiss to my temple. “And yet you ran.”
“I know,” I murmured, leaning closer so he could kiss my jaw. “Will you forgive me?”
“Maybe one day,” he whispered, his voice husky as his lips danced along my jaw up to my ear, making it hard to think. Heat curled in my abdomen, sparking with every kiss he placed against my skin.
I turned my head to capture his mouth with mine, and moaned at the burning need flaming between us as he kissed me deeply.
“I’m so, so sorry, Warin,” I gasped when he pulled back to allow me to breathe.
“If you ever leave again, you’ll be more than sorry,” he said, and this time, the growl in his voice was more than a hint. Dark possessiveness flared in his eyes, making me gasp at the desire rushing through my veins in response.
“I won’t,” I promised, pressing closer to his strong body until my breasts, stomach, and hips were flush against him and I could wrap my arms around the back of his neck. When I went for another kiss, he growled and pushed me backward, never breaking our desperate kiss. My back hit the wall, his cool fingers tugging at my top, ripping the fabric in their haste.
“Warin,” I moaned, and then whimpered when he tore my bra off my, the straps catching before they ripped, and he buried his mouth in my breasts. His tongue flicked against an already stiff nipple while his hands went for my pants, rending the zipper. They were off me in the blink of an eye, his fingers sliding through my curls and into my already dampening slit.
“Missed you so much,” he groaned, his thumb finding my clit as he drove two fingers into my sheath.
I whined in response, my hips arching out for more even as my pussy twitched at the rough penetration. It didn’t take long before his fingers’ movements were accompanied by the slick sounds of my eagerness.
“Take me,” I moaned, clutching at his hair as he sucked my nipples in rhythm with his thumb’s circles on my clit. “Show me I’m yours!”
Warin growled in response, his fingers leaving my pussy. The next second he hoisted my up by the hips, unzipped his pants, and lined the throbbing head of his cock up against my dripping opening.
“Yes,” I pleaded. “Do it. Please. Make it hurt!”
Warin thrust in, forcing me wide with enough force to make me cry out as delicious pain shivered up along my spine. His hips slapped against mine as he seated himself fully inside of me. Giving me no time to accept his thickness, he drew his hips back—and then he fucked me. Hard.
I screamed as my pussy convulsed around his big cock, trying to accept the brutal pounding, but not finding any respite. He fucked me like no human ever could, so hard and so fast it hurt as my G-spot took the brunt of his pent-up anger, his fear. His pain. Feral need burned in his eyes as he took me for everything I was worth, like a wounded beast finding release after centuries of agony. He had never been less human—and I had never loved him more.
I clung to his shoulders, crying out his name over and over and over again as he showed me everything he was and everything he’d been, lost and alone in the darkness.
When I came, it wasn’t blissful and it wasn’t sweet. Every inch of my pussy burned from the speed of his thrusts and the width of his cock, but he pounded my G-spot so hard I couldn’t avoid the agonizing release that rose from my pelvis in a tsunami of endorphins. I cried out as I crested, digging my nails into his shoulders while my body twitched and cramped, my pussy milking his hard cock in fluttering pulses.
Warin’s release followed mine, his soothingly cool essence flooding my battered depths as he shouted in ecstasy—and buried his fangs in my neck.
I whimpered at the sharp sting as he pierced my skin, and then moaned at the pleasurable pulse of my lifeblood sustaining my beloved.
We stayed like that for a long while, embracing as he drank from me, his softening cock still lodged deep inside of me while I whispered professions of my eternal love in his ear. It was such an intimate moment, filled with nothing but our relief from finally being united again.
That is, until Aleric’s voice broke through our blissful bubble.
“I hope you’re planning on offering a taste. I’m famished.”
I squeaked, mortified.
Warin pulled back from my neck, giving it a few slow licks. He seemed undisturbed that we’d just fucked in front of his asshole of a brother—in fact, he ignored him as he let me slide to the floor, hand clasped around my shoulder to ensure I was okay to stand.
“Are you okay?” he murmured, and when our eyes locked, I saw they were light with happiness—and relief.
“Yeah. Peachy. Just, ya know, not thrilled about being naked in front of your perverted brother.” I crossed my arms over my breasts and glared at Aleric. He was still sitting on the floor, but instead of kneeling, he’d sprawled out, leaning against Warin’s desk as if to watch the show. Judging from the scary-looking bulge in his tight, black jeans, he’d certainly gotten his money’s worth.
Warin finally looked at Aleric then. “Your penance will start tonight. You will not feed for five nights. Not a drop of blood shall pass your lips until the sixth evening. This is your punishment for forcing your blood on my companion.”
Aleric’s face fell. “Seriously? I’m starving. She had a lot of my blood, brother. I will be too weak—“
“Enough!” Warin snapped, some of the anger from before flaring in his eyes again. “Your weakness is your own doing. Be thankful I am not taking my penance from your flesh, as is my right for what you did!”
Aleric’s sullen expression stiffened into a resigned grimace, and he bowed his head. “Yes, Elder. May I retire for the night?”
“You may.” Warin returned his focus to me, his expression softening again once the slam of the door announced Aleric’s departure.
“I was so lost without you,” he murmured, stroking a hand through my hair before he pulled me in to rest against his shoulder.
“As I was without you,” I whispered against his neck. Fat tears formed at the corners of my eyes and trickled down my cheeks, and I clung to him as he held me so wonderfully tight, whispering soothing words in my ear.
I cried quite a bit more that night, but it was alright, because I did it in Warin’s embrace.
28
The main downside to being force-fed Aleric’s blood turned out not so much to be that he could now track me down wherever I went.
No, the worst part was waking up panting and so horny I wanted to crawl out of my own skin after a very dirty, very detailed dream involving Warin’s infuriating brother and a sex dungeon.
It took me more than a few moments to compose myself enough to not roll over and try to straddle Warin’s passed-out form next to me. For one, it seemed highly inappropriate to take my dreams of his brother out on him—and for another, the fact that he was literally still as a corpse while sleeping was pretty much the biggest turn-off ever.
Instead, I rolled over to look at him while the yearning in my abdomen slowly settled down.
It was the first time since we met that I watched Warin sleep.
He’d taken me to his secret sleeping area the night before, which turned out to be behind a trap door in his walk-in closet.
I spent some time tracing the lines of his face and silently thanking the goddess that he had taken me back. I w
as even thankful to Aleric, the massive prick, for forcing me to come back. The quiet hum in my chest as I looked at Warin’s sleeping figure was such a contrast to the ache that’d haunting me during my stay in Kentucky. So long as Aleric found out who’d given me that note and put a stop to their plans of exposing me, everything would be all right.
* * *
Eventually, the urge for the bathroom became too overwhelming, so I fought my way out of Warin’s surprisingly strong grasp and climbed into the walk-in.
After a good, long, cold shower and some breakfast, the delicate ache in my body from our reunion wasn’t too bad, and I decided to take care of some errands while Warin slept. Mainly because I was pretty sure his “you will stay by my side” claims from last night meant it’d be a while before I’d get to go out on my own, once he’d had time to get Roy back on guard duty, and partly because I kind of had to. I’d disappeared from Kentucky without a trace, and if Maggie had informed Joana, I had to let her know I was all right. With everything she’d done for me, it wouldn’t be right to let her think the worst.
I scrounged up a notepad and a pen in Warin’s study and left him a note on the bed, explaining where I’d gone and that I’d be back soon, just in case I wasn’t back before the sun set, and then I went to see Joana.
* * *
No one answered when I knocked on the boarded-up storefront I knew housed the Coven of the Moon’s headquarters, but I was persistent. It took ten full minutes of non-stop knocking before the door finally creaked open, and Kevin, Joana’s First Disciple, peeked out the crack. He looked as sullen as the last time I saw him, but his grumpy expression fell for one of surprise when he saw me.
“You?” he said.
“Yeah, hi to you too.” I gave him a tight smile—I hadn’t particularly been a fan of Joana’s sour right-hand man when I’d been drunk as a skunk, and to be honest, he didn’t seem much more amenable when I was sober. “Is Joana here? I need to speak with her.”